A debut to forget for Erling Haaland
Well, that’s it then. Forget what we’ve seen of him the last couple of years or so. Erling Haaland is most definitely a fraud.
Or at least that’s how this thing usually goes, right?
The Norwegian had a difficult start to life as a Manchester City player on Saturday afternoon, with his side going down 3-1 to Liverpool in the Community Shield.
Haaland, in truth, looked a little rusty in the first half, missing a couple of chances he might normally have gobbled up.
Nothing, however, came close to the opportunity that came his way deep into stoppage time at the end of the game.
With Darwin Nunez having opened his Liverpool account at the other end moments earlier, it looked for all the world that Haaland would get off the mark in the final minute of stoppage time.
Phil Foden’s shot from outside the box was saved by the goalkeeper, falling kindly to him inside the six-yard box.
Somehow, he lofted the ball over, clipping the top of the crossbar on the way. The miss was met with deafening ironic cheers from the Liverpool supporters at the other end of the King Power Stadium.
Haaland could only smile ruefully and acknowledge the jeers from the rival supporters as the clock wound down on the match. For such a usually lethal marksman to react in such a way would have surprised many, but it summed up how awry the striker’s full debut had gone.
Erling Haaland really missed this 😳 pic.twitter.com/rfs1TGRaEw
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) July 30, 2022
The #Haaland banter compilations will be everywhere this week after that miss, just like #Nunez last week. From 🤡 who have never kicked a ball in their life 🤷♂️
— Jamie Carragher (@Carra23) July 30, 2022
Darwin Nunez makes his mark
City can have few complaints about their defeat. Liverpool had deservedly taken a first-half lead through Trent Alexander-Arnold’s curling effort.
It remained 1-0 until 20 minutes to go, when Haaland’s fellow City debutant Julian Alvarez levelled after a VAR check.
From there, it was all about Nunez. His header 10 minutes later looked to be going wide of goal but struck the arm of Ruben Dias. A penalty was awarded, from which Mo Salah restored Liverpool’s lead.
After that, Nunez’s stooping header made absolutely sure of the win for Liverpool.
Related links:
-
Full player ratings as Darwin Núñez inspires Liverpool to Community Shield success
-
Erling Haaland reveals message from Ole Solskjaer after he joined Man City
- Eduoard Mendy claims preparing for Haaland ‘not that different’ to Christian Benteke
